Interim Scottish Golf CEO disputes “turmoil” claim

Fraser Thornton, Scottish Golf’s recently-appointed interim CEO, has insisted that the organisation is not in turmoil.

Thornton took on the new role early in January in a shock move and, speaking exclusively to bunkered.co.uk, he said the body is simply looking to change its structure to take advantage of the current grassroots golf boom.

Describing himself as “open, approachable and straight-talking”, Thornton seemed somewhat taken aback by the shocked reaction to his new position, as it appeared to leave current chief operating officer Karin Sharp in a precarious position.

It should be noted that Scottish Golf did not announce to the media news of the appointment.

Sharp worked closely alongside Iain Forsyth, the chief commercial officer, with the duo responsible for the introduction of the Venue Management System (VMS), the Scottish Golf App, and the OpenPlay initiative, which the organisation says now has 2,000 sign-ups.

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Thornton is now the fifth person to lead the organisation since 2016. When Andrew McKinlay resigned in 2020, he was the third CEO to jump in 50 months.

Sources close to bunkered.co.uk say the move in January had surprised staff at Scottish Golf.

It comes on the back of the organisation revealing that it will ask its members next month to approve an increase in the affiliation fee by 8.6% from £14.50 to £15.75, a move that has angered some area officials.

Thornton, though, says he doesn’t see the situation as chaotic.

“I think that observation is unfortunate if that’s how it now appears, because it’s really not the case at all,” he said. “Not only has there been a period of calm in in Scottish, it’s actually been a very, very good period for golf in Scotland, generally. Scottish Golf has charted a very smooth course through that and Karin and Ian have done an extremely good job, and continue to do an extremely good job.”

Citing that many golf clubs in the home of golf are in a “financially better place” due to the pandemic, he said the decision to step in came down to implementing a new strategy.

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“We run on a strategy cycle, as all governing bodies do, and our previous strategy was reaching its natural end in 2022,” he said. “We needed to build a refreshed strategy and, from the board’s point of view, we were doing that from a position of great strength with club membership buoyant and golf being in growth, so the strategy we built with the management team and the board through the summer of 2022 is one all focused on growth. It will call for investment in a number of different areas.

“Having sort of two ‘heads’ of an organisation reporting into the chairman is an unusual structure.”

Asked whether it was a wise idea to fix something that isn’t necessarily broken and, in due course, cause disruption to an organisation that, for once, was swimming with the tide, Thornton said the need to deliver the strategy came above all else.

“We need a single head to drive the organisation forward and achieve some of the some of the ambitious goals that we’re going to set. The absolute last thing we want is to have another period of instability.”

The Cardross member added that there was a lot of work to be done, and that the board did not want to leave a gap at the top until a new CEO came in. He also said that Sharp had all the attributes to fill the role – but said the board needed to do the right thing by the organisation and look to the market for the best candidate.

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In a surprise admission, he said he had “actively encouraged” Sharp to apply for the role and go through the recruitment process. “Karin is extremely well placed to get the job,” he said. “There is absolutely no question about it. It absolutely could be Karin. It would be surprising if there are many stronger candidates than Karin to emerge.”

On its website, Scottish Golf outlined the precarious financial situation it now finds itself in, and Thornton was at pains to say it needed to be addressed.

“The reality is the reality is that when we inflation adjust for the size of business and the cost that we had in 2018 versus what we have today, the cost of running that same size of business has gone up £700,000,” he said.

“We’ve contained the cost through other cost-saving measures to about £500,000, so we’ve done better than the inflationary adjusted cost base would have suggested. This year, we’ll run a deficit unless we choose to do fewer things, or we reorganise with a reduced headcount. We passionately don’t believe that now is take the right time to take a backward step in service delivery.”

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He added that dipping into reserves, which amount to £1.6m, was not a responsible way to run a business. Increasing the affiliation fee by £1.25 will raise just over £200,000 but would leave a shortfall of a further £200,000.

“We need to back ourselves in the business to raise that £200,000 with other third party commercial funding or other activities.”

If members do not vote through the increase at the AGM on March 5, he said the organisation would not be able to deliver its strategy and that tough decisions would have to be made in two years.

“It would be disappointing if our members didn’t feel it was worth supporting to the tune of another £1.25 on the on the per capita fee given the overall economic circumstances that everyone finds themselves in. It would be disappointing.”